To me this is the most focused Grateful Dead tour of 1971
Just check out this Dark Star
This initial tour with Keith helps build a foundation for Europe 72.
When Pig returns he is more in the background.
Still has plenty of mojo but not center stage unless it is his tune.
All of this tour is solid to my ears. Nothing fancy or over the top
Here is the song, find your groove.
they wanted Keith to get real familiar with the repertoire .
Sugar Magnolia,DEAL to open YEAH!
EL PASO-Nice Garcia riffs
Weir "Thank You, friends"
JED-new meaty,beaty big, bouncy
J. Straw-Phil's bass and those harmonies Sing it Bobby!
China>Rider-Jerry going this way
Phil going that way
Jerry's guitar licks on PITB
Phil's backing vocals on Mexical.
"Shall we go, you and I while we can.."
Yellow Dog-story
i love Cumberland late in the show!
Stephen>Johnny B (interesting pair right there)
https://historicdetroit.org/galleries/eastown-theatre-old-photos
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2075

from a great old theater (RIP). One of my favorite periods to be sure. Dark Star is icing on the cake.

moo!

I love transition years, every time theyou play with a new musician we get this influx of energy from not only the new player but from the whole band.
Thank you to the uploader and to Jerry and Co. for giving us all this music gratis.

Not that I remember much but this was my first live GD show. I do remember someone in the audience yelling, "Rock and Roll !" between songs and Bobby who was very annoyed, told him to
"F-off, relax we're from California". The sound is much cleaner than what we heard in the balcony. Great Sound Board archived show.
Thanx and Happy Trails

Any well played show with a killer Dark Star gets 5 from me!

Keith's first few weeks in the band were pretty much all supercharged, high energy shows and this is no exception. The Jerry ballads from this run are all pretty much uniformly excellent as well...

But obviously the heart of this show is a totally slept-on, non-famous but really smoking Dark Star. Garcia is in fleet, nimble form throughout. The pre-verse jamming fades back and forth from DS structure to spacy open jamming, then after the verse we get a propulsive melodic jam that flirts with the Tighten Up theme before diverging into a unique creative section. Really great! A must for Dark Star heads.

Thanks for this! Sounds great. Really spacey and spacious Dark Star.